This post contains spoilers up until the most recent chapters!!!
Hinokizu is a figure in the world of One Piece that we know very little about. They’re supposedly the person holding onto the last road poneglyph. We also know that many of the other crews knew about this person’s existence while the Straw Hats – even Robin – did not. They’re described as a man with a burn scar, and if this is their epithet then it’s likely in an obvious place. Their black ship sails the seas and anyone that gets close is swallowed up in a vortex. We get most of what we know about this figure through the thoughts of the Blackbeard pirates. They mention that the vortexes could be related to a devil fruit, although I don’t believe such a fruit has been mentioned at this point. Shiryu also remarks that he thinks it’s a government man, but has no basis for this claim. If there wasn’t some interest to this claim, I don’t think Oda would include it, unless it was a red herring, but why throw out a red herring for a character we literally know nothing about? All we truly know about this figure is that they stole the road poneglyph from Fishman Island and are now roaming the seas. So who could this person be? Let’s look at the options amongst characters that we already know.
Before we get to proper guesses, let’s eliminate some options I’ve seen floating around. I’ve heard people claim that Oden was sent ahead in time by Toki to protect the One Piece, but that sounds far-fetched and doesn’t make much narrative sense. I’ve heard theories about former Whitebeard members being Hinokizu, but that doesn’t add up when it comes to the timeline. The poneglyph was stolen well before the timeskip, and Whitebeard’s crew only disbanded at the start of the timeskip. I’ve also seen people claim theories about either Saul or Loki being the man with the burn scar, but those have more or less been debunked with what we saw during Elbaf so far. Clou D. Clover is another name mentioned, but again, I don’t think it makes much narrative sense. I would really like the idea that Nico Olvia somehow survived the fires at Ohara and then roamed the seas. I don’t think this is true. With Saul already being a survivor of this story but not mentioning or knowing about Olvia’s survival it would just feel like fanservice. Kuzan would have been a fun option had he not already been accounted for. Fought a magma enemy, former navy, very powerful, but he doesn’t match the description. So what guesses do I have?
Three pretty open guesses I have are that Hinokizu is a former member of one of three big crews from the story of One Piece. I originally thought he might be Scopper Gaban, but we know that to be untrue. There is still room for another Roger pirate to yet live and want to keep the treasure out of the wrong hands. I’m also thinking it could be a former Rocks Pirates member. We know that many of them went on to achieve great things, including people like Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom. The third crew I’m thinking of is Shiki’s crew. He was a big figure among the Rocks pirates but we’ve only ever seen him in a movie which – although canon to an extent – doesn’t show up in the manga. All three of these are pretty loose guesses and admittedly I don’t find any of them super likely, but I wanted to throw them out there regardless.
Another possibility I’ve seen mentioned around that I quite like is it being Dragon. As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have a burn scar anywhere particularly visible, but he does match the “navy man” description in a sense that he was once in the navy. He also has been shown to use weather manipulation abilities so a devil fruit that can cause whirlpools isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. But Dragon has been at the head of the revolutionaries for a long time. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to roam around on a black ship just sinking random pirates in the New World. He does have reason to keep the One Piece from falling into the wrong hands, but I don’t think he’ll be too invested. I also don’t think this would be a good way for him and Luffy to meet. I’d like them to meet in a different way, where they’re both involved in the final war, come across each other and just kind of don’t care too much about the whole thing before going their own way.
So what is the conclusion to it all? Well, the short answer is that I have no idea. I’ve thrown around a few wild guesses, but in all honesty I think the most likely explanation is that it is a character we have yet to meet. I’ve been thinking back to earlier arcs in the story but I also can’t think of characters from those that fit the position particularly well. So we’ll just have to wait until Oda reveals it to us. But let me know if you have any other theories that fit really well. Or is there someone I mentioned that you think is Hinokizu? Let me know down below and as always, thanks for reading!
I’ve never really played Volleyball, but when I first watched this show I really, really considered signing up for it since it was just such an appealing story.
I have been gaining weight. I was relatively light about two years ago, but ever since I started taking my anti-anxiety medication I’ve been slowly gaining weight. That would happen sometimes in the past as well, but a good bout of anxiety or panic would usually burn up those reserves pretty quickly. That may not have been particularly healthy, and I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to those days, but it was one of the side effects I didn’t mind nearly as much as the others. Now that my mental health has improved a decent amount, it might be time to start worrying about my physical health on top of it. So I’ve dug up the ringfit, started eating an apple a day and am keeping my snacking habits a little bit more under control although that last one has seen very limited success. What better time to talk about some of my favorite sports anime out there than now? There are many great sports anime out there and although some of them are very similar in how they tick, there are also some very different shows. Today I’d like to highlight four of these shows that are different enough from each other to be interesting to different people. I was originally planning to do five shows, but although I could shoehorn a show in that’s too similar to some of the others, I decided to keep it at four. I am saving the fifth entry for its own post. But out of those four, let’s start with the most classic one.
Kuroko no Basket
I could have put Hajime no Ippo here, I could have put Haikyuu here, I could have put Ao Ashi here and there are likely a dozen other shows that are similar enough to fit this spot, but when it comes to your classic shonen sports there is nothing that can beat Kuroko no Basket. I’m not biased because I grew up playing basketball, how dare you suggest that. Kuroko no Basket follows Kagami as well as the titular Kuroko as they join Seirin high school’s basketball team. Kuroko, once belonging to a legendary middle school team dubbed the generation of miracles, but being the mostly forgotten glue that kept the rest of the team together through his interesting abilities and Kagami being a relative unknown that’s bursting with potential, the duo start integrating into their new team. The generation of miracles have all split up and are now each part of their own team, leading their schools into powerhouse territory. The story follows Seirin as they climb the ranks and take on the other generation of miracle teams one at a time, while also developing the other teams really well. This is something that many of the better shonen teams do, they spend enough time on the other teams so that they feel important. I’ll highlight this particular thing more in another show we’ll cover shortly.
I don’t remember where it was first pointed out to me, but recognizing that the characters in this show and the characters in Haikyuu are the same age is hilarious, as the characters here are drawn much more muscular and tall.
Kuroko no Basket is relatively unique in how its players’ abilities are represented. Their abilities are all based around actual basketball skills. Think of things like tricky dribbling, shooting three pointers, ankle breakers, really good blockers and more. All of these abilities are tuned to the extreme, turning them into what are basically super powers. The trick for every match is dealing with the opposing team’s super power in some way. The cast is fun, the animation is fine and the hype of the sports matches – including recurring characters in the stands providing commentary – are all done well enough that this is probably the show I’m most likely to recommend to you when you’re just dipping your toes into the genre. This or Haikyuu, kind of depends if you prefer volleyball or basketball. But if you’ve already watched those and are looking for something that feels a little bit more competitive, then have a look at the next entry on this list.
Looking back at it, this looks fine, but I remember at the time being blown away by the animation and direction of these shots. It’s still solid, but we’ve come a long way since *checks release date* 2015??? How has it been a decade?
Ace of Diamond
This series has all the building blocks of your standard shonen sports story. Aiming for nationals, rival teams, senpais who are graduating soon, new members and of course sports matches. But despite all of these similarities to the more formulaic shonen sports shows, I still want to put this in its own separate categories. And I want to do this for two reasons. The first reason is one that on its own wouldn’t really make me want to separate it, but is interesting. Seido high school – the team that this manga mostly centers around – loses a lot. Most of these shows have the teams losing here and there, or pulling out some last second victories, but since the end goal of these stories is usually to have the teams win their important matches, preferably before the senpais retire, the match results end up being pretty predictable. There’s some curveballs (yes we’re doing baseball puns) here and there where teams lose matches you would expect them to win, but Seido loses at crucial moments all the time, and then we spend some time sulking about it before continuing on. It’s honestly great since I rewatched the show years later and didn’t remember some of the results of matches, making it exciting to rewatch.
Thank you audience for explaining everything to us. These reporters are also returning characters, something that many sports anime do.
The second thing that Ace of Diamond does incredibly well is highlighting the other teams in the competition. Because Seido loses and drops out of the competition several times, it gives us the ability to spend much more time in the world it plays in. This results in the characters spectating rival matches and taking the viewer along into the strategies and hopes of other teams. This goes so far that sometimes I forget which team is the main team and end up rooting for another team. The interpersonal connections we see established here make the world feel much more alive, with coaches and managers from other teams having established places and playstyles. One of the coaches was even a former coach of the current coach of Seido, to just give an example. Where Kuroko no Basket feels borderline fantastic, Haikyuu feels idealized but Ace of Diamond feels down to earth and realistic. With almost a hundred volumes total – much of which I haven’t read yet – this story also gives you quite a lot of time to spend with these characters, which I would say is also a pro. If you’ve moved on from the main shounen sports anime, definitely check out this show. I have personally not seen Major yet, but if you really like baseball, I’ve been told that it is a great entry into the genre too.
Frustration and regret are a big theme in this show and although it can feel oppressive at times, it does a good job at staying grounded.
Run with the wind
Both of the entries we’ve talked about so far are very much still within the realm of shounen sports anime. Despite a somewhat different approach for each of these, they are still about a high school team working together to go to nationals. Run with the wind is nothing like that. For starters, this isn’t based on a manga, but instead based on a novel. Not a light novel, not a web novel, but a proper novel. What’s the difference? I don’t know, marketing?
That’s at the core of the story, they’re all trying to find some answers to what life is really all about.
In Run with the wind, the sports part of the story is very much just there as a tool to push the narrative forward. The story follows a group of young men living in a dormitory together while they go to school or try to find a job. They each have their own paths to getting here, and our main character – Kakeru – ends up staying there as well, after being caught shoplifting. One of the members there convinces everyone staying at this dormitory to join him in training for the Hakone Ekiden. The Hakone Ekiden is a race which is held yearly in Japan and sees 20 university teams compete over the span of two days. The relay race is the biggest out of several that are being held in Japan and takes place in the first days of January. Haiji really wants to complete this race with his friends but he needs to convince them to participate. Running a relay race for a good friend doesn’t seem like it takes too much convincing, but not only are these people not very interested in running, the preliminary races that you need to complete within a certain time are pretty brutal for people who haven’t trained for them at all. But like I said, the sport itself isn’t that big of a focal point for this anime.
The finish line
What is really at the core of this story is the personal struggles that each of these characters go through. Quitting smoking, setting yourself apart from your twin, dealing with being a shut-in and not making many friends or even being unable to find a job. Each of these characters is unique but feels very grounded. Their struggles and their wants are both very real and well explored. All of them need to overcome something in their personal life and through the discipline, friendship and physical energy they all get from running they end up getting to a place in their life where they’re more content with who they are and where they are at in life. It’s a wonderful study of people and I would highly recommend anyone who has the time to do so to check it out. It’s a one and done, no sequels, no cliffhangers, just a nice self-contained story. And the music is great too.
Chihayafuru
There were several shows I wanted to put in this slot that all scratch that “sports-esque” itch. I considered talking about smile down the runway but it feels a bit niche and I don’t know enough about fashion to properly review it. I also wanted to put my all time favorite anime March comes in like a lion in this spot, but I think that’s a show I really want to dive in at some point and dissect every detail of as opposed to three or four paragraphs. So only one show was left in this weird subgenre that I really love and that is of course Chihayafuru.
The titular Chihaya, flustered by some mean tactics from her friend, which she probably deserved.
If you’re unfamiliar with this show then first of all, lucky you. You get to experience it completely fresh and there are even three seasons of it. When I first watched it there were only two and let me tell you, the announcement that a third season was being made came out of absolutely nowhere. Now, Chihayafuru is not a sports anime in the classic sense. Karuta – the game that we focus on in this series – is a card game during which poetry is read out and it is up to the players to tap the corresponding card with the second half of the poem. It’s a combination of memorization and reflexes and it’s a genuine competition in Japan. The story follows the titular Chihaya who was introduced to this game by her two childhood friends and although one of them later moved away, she ropes her other friend into starting a Karuta club at her school. They recruit more members so that they’re able to actually compete and then start playing the game against serious opponents.
Look at how adorable they are.
Although I am putting this in the sports genre, I would probably call it a romance and drama anime first. Karuta is a large part of the story which means the aesthetics involved also play a big role. When I first got into this show I recommended it to a friend of mine but she said she didn’t really like how much fanservice it had. This confused me at first because there were no fanservice moments in it at all. What my friend was talking about was how Chihaya as a character is written to be an extremely likable character and the way she acts and moves definitely invokes an innocence that can be very attractive to people. I don’t disagree with her sentiment about this, but I do think this holds less true in later seasons when she becomes a much more rounded character. Chihayafuru’s cast of interesting characters does a lot of good work in making the show very enjoyable and the tension from the actual competition is high enough to keep that competitive sports element alive as well. Like I said at the start of this chapter, definitely give this show a watch if you haven’t yet, but then again do that for each of the shows I’ve talked about here.
But of course, drama is always lucking.
In conclusion
In conclusion? What is this, an essay for a university assignment? Well, it just felt weird to put this paragraph still under the previous heading, so that’s why the distinction is here. The sports genre is one that has always been near and dear to my heart. Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen are part of this genre and some of my comfort shows are as well. I can watch Haikyuu episodes any day and be happy about it, same with Kuroko, Chihayafuru and many others. It’s not so much about the sport itself – although sometimes it is – but putting people in a competitive setting allows us to really explore the motivations and wants of these people. It’s also what makes other shounen and seinen shows tick in a lot of cases. Sure, it’s fun to watch Luffy beat the crap out of dictator #4, but the real joy of the show is in watching the underlying story about the people who suffer under a cruel government and are about ready to stand up to their oppressors. The relationships between Naruto and Sasuke are much more interesting than Naruto beating up some guy. It’s also why Bleach kind of falls flat for me a lot of the time. It’s much more about just having cool characters and cool fights than an actual look into the human condition. And if that is your thing, more power to you, there’s tons of things to like about those sorts of shows. I still have a soft spot for both Fairy Tail and Black Clover and those shows are about as deep as a puddle. There’s no need for a show to be deep to be good, but some shows that do trust the viewer a little bit more can make for a great watch. But that’s me and my thoughts, are there any shows I really should have put on here that are different enough from these entries to warrant that fifth spot? Perhaps I’ll revisit this post in the future to add to it. But for now, thanks for reading!
Don’t worry my beloved, I will talk about you soon enough. And yes, this may not look like a sports anime, but I promise you I can make it fit.
As someone who fell completely and utterly in love with anime not long before I got my autism diagnosis, I think it’s fair to say that watching anime causes autism. Pack up the research folks, it’s not vaccines that cause autism, but it’s the consumption of anime as a medium that causes autism. We’ve cracked the code and it’s all part of Japan’s masterplan to take over the world. Or maybe there’s a different reason why so many neurodivergent people seem to take an interest in the sort of storytelling that comes out of anime and manga. Perhaps there’s more to it than meets the eye. It’s a topic of discussion that I’ve had my eyes on for quite a while and what better way to finish autism awareness month than by combining two things I love talking about: Anime and autism.
Trying to find actual research on this topic was difficult. I found several bloggers who had tinkered with the concept in much a similar way that I’m doing right now, but the only thing I found that could be considered research was a research on the link between autism and visual stimming by Rose et al(2024), which I will link to at the end of this blog. This paper spends time addressing the different ways that the ASD community is looked at, both as non-contributing as well as culture defining. It then puts a lens to stimming, which is a concept I only recently learned about. To explain stimming in my own words, it’s the act of stimulating your senses. It’s kind of what fidget toys were meant to do, but lately it seems to have taken on a more broader meaning. With animation as a form of stimming, this article goes into the connection between the two. It’s an interesting way to look at things and I quite liked reading through it – barring the wall of sources which is inevitable but still annoying to read through in actual research – and see what the authors think. They speak of not falling in line with the trend of masking and making people on the spectrum appear more neurotypical and I’m a big proponent for that. But the link that I’ve seen between autism and anime is a little bit different from theirs, and it’s something I want to go into today.
Some of the first anime I watched were shonen action shows. For those who are normally only here for my autism-related posts and know very little about anime, let me explain. Shonen is quite simply the Japanese word for “young man”. That basically makes shonen manga and anime their version of young adult novels. Stories that are easy to pick up by teenagers but can regularly still be enjoyed by an older audience. Think of your Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but they’d be comics and cartoons instead. Popular shows in this genre that made it to the west include Dragonball, Pokémon, Digimon and with a recent Netflix adaptation; One Piece. All these stories are light in their subject matter for the most part, although One Piece can be enjoyed on multiple levels, but we’ll get to that later. This of course isn’t the only genre of anime there is, but it is the way a lot of young men first encounter the genre. And I still like quite a few shows in this genre to this day and watch them regularly with the aforementioned One Piece being an all time favorite of mine. A lot of the appeal of these shows – especially to those who are neurodivergent – are the directness of the story and the characters. Sometimes when I was younger and I would watch a dramatic scene in a live action movie I couldn’t really get invested all that much. With anime it was different. Let’s actually go back to One Piece for that for a little bit.
One Piece tells the story of a young man becoming a pirate, sailing the world, amassing allies and enemies and fixing injustice along the way. As time goes on it gets out of hand and they basically become freedom fighters dealing with a corrupt world government, but we’ll not get into that today. I want to focus on one of my favorite arcs in the story here that happens early on. Nami – the crew’s navigator and the inspiration for my cat’s name – has been working for a pirate crew to pay back a debt her town has to him. After betraying the main cast and then in turn being betrayed by Arlong – this pirate captain – and losing all the money she’d spent a decade of hard work on, she breaks down and cries, asking Luffy and his friends to help her. Luffy agrees and beats the crap out of this Arlong figure. This scene had me crying my eyes out so badly I couldn’t even see the screen anymore. To this day I cannot watch this scene without crying and for years I wondered why anime would get such a primal emotional reaction from me. After my autism diagnosis I think it clicked for me. The way emotions are portrayed in cartoons, drawings and comics are often exaggerated. Big watery eyes, tears rolling down a character’s face and almost forming a puddle at their feet, twisted facial expressions, over the top laughter, very visible and clear anger. They literally and figuratively paint you a picture of what the characters are feeling at that moment. It’s not that they’re more accurate than the emotions that human actors portray, but a lot of people who are neurodivergent struggle with human emotions and facial expressions. When they’re drawn and made more exaggerated, they’re much easier to understand and you don’t need to piece things together, losing out on the moment. For me personally, the key to neurodivergent people being drawn to anime lies in this exact thing. It is much easier to relate thus it the emotions hit much better.
Another factor of anime being so successful in calling up emotions – at least for me in particular – is the sound and music design. Either Japanese musicians are built differently or they’re doing something that relates more with me personally, but when that soundtrack hits at just the right moment you know damn well that I’m bawling my eyes out on command. If you combine the stimming of colors and sounds with the very direct storytelling and the often over the top emotions, you get a very pleasant thing to hyperfixate on. And because anime is a medium, not a genre, there are many different types of shows to choose from. I think the big reason why I believe the stimming part of anime to be less relevant than the emotions on display is because I strongly feel that manga – the comics that anime are often based upon – has the same effect. I still vividly remember sitting in the bus on my way home from an internship and struggling not to cry at the manga I was reading because I knew that some of the students I taught were also on that bus and I didn’t want to look weird. It’s truly a magical way of storytelling that really resonates with me in ways I never expected when my friend told me to watch this strange cartoon in which girls had cat ears. Don’t ask.
But that is my thoughts on this subject in a quick summary. None of this is based on proper research and all of it is based on my own experiences, so it’s likely very different for other people. There’s a good reason we refer to autism as a spectrum in modern times and there are many people on the spectrum who have no interest in anime and manga whatsoever, but would much rather watch live action movies. As deep as we could get into this topic, at the end of the day stories and art are meant to entertain us. They’re meant to convey meaning, emotions and values from one person to another. (important note, I said person, not AI). And for me, anime does that best of all. If you find this subject interesting and would like to chat about it, I would love to have a conversation in the comments down below. There are some other subjects that are related to this I wanted to talk about, but it felt like the post would get too long, so let me know if you want to read those in the future. I’ll at the very least talk about how March comes in like a lion gives us a masterclass on displaying mental health and anxiety in such a clear way that anyone could feel the emotions themselves. Also as mentioned before, I’ll put the source I used below. Thanks for reading!
Rose, M. C., Galbraith, P. W., & Thomas-Parr, G. (2024). Stim culture: Outlining anime’s appeal to the autistic community. International Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241293159
Although the story of One Piece mostly revolves around the battle between pirates, navy soldiers, more pirates and a corrupt government that seems to be basically demons incarnate, there is also an entire underground underworld within the world of One Piece. Brokers, shipping, slave trade and lots of smuggling are all handled within this shady world. One figure is known for being very effective at smuggling. That is one of the underworld emperors, a man by the name of Umit who runs the Umit Shipping company.
We see Umit very sparsely throughout the story of One Piece. He is present at the wedding of Charlotte Pudding and Vinsmoke Sanji as one of the guests, and although he falls down with the cake, I have a suspicion he will still be around. He’s also been shown to help Vegapunk with the creation of Egghead back in the day, which means that at least some of the work he does involves the navy to an extent. Vegapunk is also friends with some highly wanted people, so that doesn’t have to be true, but it’s an interesting tidbit.
Why am I bringing Umit up? Well, he is specifically introduced as one of the underworld emperors when we first meet him during Whole Cake Island, and to run a shipping company like that, you need to have a way to get from one part of the world to another part of the world with relative ease. Although we learn later in the story that a lot of the more powerful people tend to come and go as they please, the world of One Piece is still made out of different stretches of ocean that are split up by large strips of land. You can’t just smuggle stuff across the world without running into some barriers here and there. So Umit probably has some special routes that he takes.
And if we think of someone taking special routes, the first person that comes to mind for many of us is our favorite red haired pirate Shanks. You see, one of the things that has long baffled people about Shanks is his ability to be at so many different places within such a short time. He appears in front of Kaido one day, then is at Marineford the next day to stop the war. He is at Wano to stare menacingly at Ryokugyu and is at Elbaf within a day or two. He visits East Blue regularly and seems to know where to find Mihawk if he needs to. To make a long story short, I think both Umit and Shanks know something that many people don’t, and I think the Roger Pirates knew the same thing.
Back in Fishman Island, we learned that there are underwater currents that take you from one place to another but can get you stuck there if you’re not careful. A very fun theory – and of course, I’m not the one who came up with this theory – is that the Roger pirates, the Red Haired pirates and the Umit Shipping company all know about these underwater currents and are very capable at traversing them, essentially using a form of fast travel throughout the world of One Piece. This would explain a lot about how some of these people get from one place to another so efficiently – Rayleigh swimming from Sabaody to Goa Kingdom makes more sense if he knows the right currents – without being spotted by anyone. It would also explain why the Roger pirates and Shanks’ crew don’t have devil fruits and it would add an extra layer to why Buggy is so upset about not being able to swim. Of course there seems to be quite a lot of strangeness down at the bottom of the ocean that we have yet to explore, think of what we saw at the end of Wano with the original country being much deeper down, and suddenly we have a very good reason to be able to traverse the bottom of the ocean. With One Piece reaching its final saga, I don’t think these deep sea currents will play a major role in the story, but perhaps we get a few crumbs of lore in the upcoming arcs to learn a little bit more about them. There’s a lot to this world that is not yet discovered and I can’t wait to learn more about it all. Thanks for reading.
With our journey of traveling through the world of One Piece from back in volume 1 all the way up to volume 108 coming to a close, it’s time for us to move on to the next chapter of this story. Instead of talking about a volume every week, we’ll look at recent chapters, interesting storylines, fun characters and all sorts of interesting things from the world of One Piece. I’ve always had a blast diving deep into the lore of this story and I think finding the interesting tidbits that we might have missed in our journey through the story so far will be a lot of fun. I have a couple of subjects already lined up and although I initially wanted to take a break from this series, I think I’ll save that break for later as there’s more than enough to talk about.
Just today you can enjoy a new blogpost about the deep sea current theory, but future topics include things like:
Did the supernovas meet the hype
Weird powers that didn’t quite make a return
What is truly going on on the moon
And many, many more. Tune in each week – perhaps with a break now and then – to read about something related to the world of One Piece. Spoilers will be marked at the start of each post in the form of an indication for up to what part of the story they actually contain spoilers and when a new One Piece volume gets published in English we’ll of course take a look at that like we’ve done with all the previous ones. For now, look forward to what the future brings and as always, thanks for reading.
Yeah, yeah, another Solo Leveling review, I’m sure those of you who are looking for these have seen a million already praising it into the high heavens. And for good reason. Solo Leveling has a lot going for it and the anime adaptation it received is a big step up from other shows based on the webtoon format like Noblesse, Tower of God and God of High School. Still, I wouldn’t write this post if I didn’t have some thoughts I wanted to share with the class. So here goes. Spoilers ahead for the anime, I’ll avoid spoilers for anything that comes after.
Solo Leveling follows E-rank hunter Sung Jinwoo as he goes into a dangerous double dungeon where his entire crew – barring a few – gets brutally murdered. He is the last one to die except he next wakes up in the hospital, unsure why he’s still alive and how his limbs are back to normal. And to make things even weirder, he now has a strange UI floating around that tells him to complete quests or get punished. He obviously ignores it, resulting in a harsh punishment that almost kills him. Once he comes to terms with the reality of his situation he shows extraordinary growth. He continues to grow and becomes strong and oh no, he’s hot.
Oh no, he’s hot
He finally acquires true power through fighting a warrior in a special dungeon and awakening to his summoning abilities, allowing him to turn slain foes into powerful shadow soldiers. This is where the incredible “arise” panel comes from, where Jinwoo first uses this ability. Now it’s time for me to admit something to all of you. I love Solo Leveling and I think it’s one of the best webtoons out there, second only to Tower of God (although I have to admit I’ve not read that many yet). But I didn’t always think this way.
Before I finished reading the entire webtoon in a couple of days, I actually tried reading it twice. Both times I ended up dropping it early on. Both times before I got to the “arise” moment, the second time being only a few chapters removed from it. I like stories that take their time building up the world, but the worldbuilding in Solo Leveling didn’t really do it for me. It just felt like a very generic power fantasy with no substance. To this day I still think that some of the initial arcs are pretty bland. But I will say the same thing about One Piece and Tower of God, and those are some of my favorite series of all time. So what did this season change?
This is the start of a rollercoaster that does not stop for anyone
Of course I had read the source material, so this season didn’t change much for me, but when I got to this point in the webtoon, it did change everything. From the moment Jinwoo awakened to his shadow powers, the story started going into a higher gear and lore got revealed left and right. The stakes went up tremendously and although Jinwoo didn’t become an edgy loner or a boring good guy, he became a powerful person with his very own goals. He’s a good dude, but he’s not out there playing the hero, which made him interesting. He can be stoic at times, and he really values his family. If he showed up to Jeju island immediately instead of spending time with his mother and sister instead – which he obviously values tremendously – he could have saved a lot of people. Then again, no one could have expected the raid to go that poorly.
That smile, that damned smile
I think what I like most about Solo Leveling is the stuff that we haven’t seen yet. It’s one of those stories where I spent a lot of time worrying about how the pay-off to the setup would turn out, and a lot of those worries ended up being for nothing. Jinwoo is a great main character who is complex, kind but can be cruel at times. The worldbuilding gets more and more interesting and the character dynamics are really cool. Without going into spoilers, I feel like Jinwoo is one of those characters that gives the viewer what they want. I’ve watched some shonen shows where I just want the main character to beat the ever living crap out of an enemy, and they instead become more of a pacifist or they show mercy. Cross Jinwoo and you’re done. And of course with this second season we also got a lot more of Cha Hae-In, who is everyone’s favorite character. Maybe not everyone’s, but she’s pretty cool.
As much as I love Cha Hae-In, I’m not sure she passes the Beschel test
Jeju Island is not my favorite arc in the series, but it’s definitely up there. It’s also the point where the stakes start getting significantly higher, which always makes a story more exciting. I think this season was a great boon for webtoon adaptations as I’m confident it’s blown its competitors out of the water. As much as I love Tower of God, the anime adaptation was pretty underwhelming. I enjoyed seeing my favorite characters in action, but it didn’t get the treatment I would have liked. Not to mention that Tower of God takes some time to get going and only once we got into the workshop arc did things start getting more and more fun. Some fun stuff is coming up in that one too, so I hope it gets a third season. Just like I hope Solo Leveling gets a third season, but with how popular it is I don’t think we need to worry much about it. I did my part by buying the webtoon, which is translated all the way up to volume 11 now, so past what the anime covered. I’m looking forward to reading it again soon.
I wanted to write a quick little anime post since we’re about to dive into April which will be focused on autism and raising awareness for it. Did you know autism kind of sucks? Well, if you didn’t, keep an eye on this blog for the next couple of weeks and we’ll talk about some subjects that might not come up as often when talking about autism. Of course everything will be based on my own experiences, so keep that in mind. Many weebs are autistic, and perhaps I am finally going to write a post with my thoughts on that connection. But until then, thanks for reading!
We’re getting way too close to the end of the series here, which means that these posts are becoming longer and longer. It’s a combination of too much happening as well as me not wanting it to end. Just the sheer amount of important revolutionaries, kings, propagandists and marines that are on the front cover gives away how big this volume is going to be. So let’s not waste anymore time and instead dive right into Volume 107.
As the Straw Hats fight against the different Seraphim, we learn that they were initially created with the help of King – Alber’s – blood. His Lunarian blood combined with the bloodline elements of power users has created these monstrously dangerous robots. While the Straw Hats fight, Shaka goes off to find the main Vegapunk, only to get shot through the head. I’ve seen One Piece characters get up from a lot of crazy wounds, including flying away safely from a nuclear bomb at point blank, but I think this might be it for Shaka. We find out shortly afterwards who was responsible. It seems like York has been in contact with the 5 elders in an attempt to become a celestial dragon. She’s the one who thinks one Vegapunk is enough and wants the rest wiped out for researching the void century. Shouldn’t have formed your satellites after sins, that was a pretty dumb move. With York unpetrified causing mayhem and the navy as well as Blackbeard’s ship approaching, the world is about to be shaken. So let’s take a step back and look at some red haired people for a moment.
At the coast of Elbaf, the Kid pirates attack Shanks’ underlings which goes about as well as you’d expect. A combination of Shanks one of a kind haki and Dorry and Broggy using their iconic attack wipes the floor with them, killing everyone in the process. Shanks’ underlings are known for being weak, living under his protection, and he does just that, protect them. It is still a pretty brutal retaliation though. Deserved or not. Elsewhere in the world – as we see a little bit later – the fight between the Heart Pirates and Blackbeard has come to a conclusion. Bepo uses a medicine made by Chopper to save his captain in an act of desperation. We don’t see what happens to the rest of Law’s crew, but instead of “destroyed” his crew is only “defeated”, so we’ll likely see them again.
Let’s move once again, this time to the pirate island of Fullalead. This is the home base of Blackbeard, where Koby is currently making his great escape. Perona freed him under the agreement that he would in turn free Moria, to allow the duo to escape. Blackbeard wants to use Koby as a bargaining chip to become a proper kingdom, but because Koby reveals that he is a member of Sword, this plan goes to waste. What they didn’t expect was that the rest of Sword would come over to help out. King Grus, Hibari, Kujaku, Helmeppo, Tashigi and most importantly, the legend that is Monkey D. Garp. The last one launches his ship onto the island, using his Galaxy Impact punch to destroy a large chunk of the inhabitants. This is an elderly man with no devil fruits. It is easy to recognize why he was on par with people like Roger and Rocks. We once again hear mention of the man with the burn scar here, but we are no closer to figuring out who it is.
Man oh man, so much happens in rapid fire from here on out, but it all has to do with the holy land of Mariejoas, so let me try my best to work through it. The revolutionaries have charged the place, destroying food supplies and aiming to rescue as many slaves as possible, including Kuma. Kuma is currently being used to try and capture Shirahoshi. All the chaos comes together here in this moment with St. Myosgard asking the pirates under Luffy’s banner to attack St. Charlos, finishing the job that Luffy started all the way back on Sabaody Archipelago. Shirahoshi is saved and Kuma is captured by Morley from the revolutionaries, which is how he got to be in Kamabakka a few chapters ago.
Elsewhere in Mariejois, we see King Cobra of Alabasta confront the 5 elders about the past of his country. There were 20 kings that formed the world government during the void century and relinquished their thrones back home. Except one of those 20 – Nefertari Lily – didn’t stay and become a noble. Instead she returned home to Arabasta to continue her line, except there are no records of her in the history of the country, causing Cobra to ask questions. While he is talking to them, Imu ascends to the empty throne and sits down. Imu – or Mu – talks about Lily’s great mistake 800 years ago causing the poneglyphs to descend into the world. It’s revealed here that this was no mistake, but a planned action by Nefertari D. Lily. In a final act of defiance, Cobra angers the 5 elders and their leader, getting killed for it. But fortunately for the old king, both Sabo and Wapol hear what happens and get away safely. Sabo to tell the revolutionaries and Wapol to tell Vivi. He finds Vivi kidnapped by CP0 who tells her that Fujitora has gone rogue and helped the slaves regain their freedom. Things are utter chaos and making use of this chaos, Wapol and Vivi flee the island.
With the world in turmoil, and the person at the very apex of the World Government perhaps being an immortal king from the times of the void century, we finally see the first member of the Holy Knights. Saint Figarland Garling is the leader of these legendary fights and he has put Saint Donquixote Myosgard to death. Two celestial dragons have been murdered in a very short amount of time. Vivi is missing and Imu wants her captured, Alabasta is without a leader and Sabo is safely back in Kamabakka kingdom.
Before we say goodbye to each other, we get to conclude the fight on Fullalead. With Garp facing off against Kuzan as well as others on Blackbeard’s crew, he gives us a masterclass on how you show off that you’re a legendary hero. Kuzan trained under him in the past, but he got expelled. And in front of his expelled student he gives his final lesson to Koby, the next generation of his students. Koby went through the same training but gave it even more. Pure drive, motivation and willpower got the whiny kid from the early chapters to this point. The point at which he is able to punch an island sized hand into rubble. With everyone else escaping, Garp goes missing on Fullalead.
And that’s where Volume 107 leaves us off. There is only one volume left before we’re all caught up with the official translated volumes. Much is yet to come, but this is a big volume when it comes to world events. I really enjoyed this one, and I think it was even better the second time around. But now I need a break. As usual, thank you for reading and please join me next week as we fully catch up on volume 108!
We’re very far into the story now. Oda has said multiple times throughout the years that he wants to start working towards the ending of One Piece and the series will end within a couple of years. Most of the times he’s made this claim, he made himself a liar by introducing big story arcs that took many years to resolve. It does feel like Wano might be the last of those big story arcs, as the pace has picked up tremendously after Wano ended. Having gone through all of the volumes that cover the land of the Samurai, which spanned from volume 90 all the way up to volume 105. That’s 16 volumes. Yuru Camp, Frieren, Zom100, Skip & Loafer, Mononogatari and Made in Abyss are all great series that I have on my shelf, and none of them have more than 16 volumes in total. Spending that much time on just one arc is crazy, so there is a lot to unpack. However, I am not going to recap all the events that we leave behind in Wano. I will be looking at the numerous events that take place during this arc – both in Wano and elsewhere – that will have a big impact on the upcoming story arcs. So no recapping fights and all that. With that out of the way, let’s get into the swing of things.
Let’s start with the ramifications of learning about Oden’s journey alongside the King of Pirates. It is revealed during Wano that the one who was able to read the poneglyphs was not in fact Roger, but his crewmate Oden. He could also hear the voice of all things just like Roger, Luffy and later Momonosuke, and we get quite a bit of lore through him. Late in the Wano arc do we learn that Kozuki Sukiyaki – Oden’s father – was still alive and able to show the road poneglyph in Wano to Robin and Trafalgar Law. Wano is built on what was once a giant mountain at the center of the current Wano. The old land of Wano is far beneath the sea level although surrounded by a giant wall. In this underwater city, below the famous Mount Fuji, lies the ancient warship Pluton. This was the weapon for which Franky and his family defended the blueprints with their lives. The weapon still exists and we now know where it is as well.
Armed with this knowledge, the three pirate crews set off on their own adventures, but not before Killer lets slip to the other captains that the remaining road poneglyph is in the possession of “the man with the burn scar” who we have not yet identified. This is where the Straw Hats set off for Egghead, the Kid Pirates set off for Elbaf – where Shanks is – and the Heart Pirates come face to face with Blackbeard and several of his powerful crew members who by this point are all power users.
But before we dive too deeply into the outside world, let’s go back to something very major we haven’t yet spoken about in this post. That is of course the reveal that Luffy’s devil fruit actually has a different name. Hidden by the world government out of fear for it being awakened, the Gum-Gum fruit was actually the Nika-Nika fruit. A human zoan fruit modeled after the god of the sun. A smiling figure who is the most free he could ever be. This knowledge puts into perspective the actions that shanks took back in Romance Dawn. He stole this fruit from a government ship, which eventually led to Who’s Who ending up in jail before joining up with the Beast Pirates in Wano. Why Shanks went after this specific fruit and what he was eventually planning to do with it, we don’t know, but it ended up going to Luffy and it seems like Shanks didn’t mind this all that much. That or he just knew he wanted to be the one controlling the man who would become the most free man on the ocean.
Okay, I think that’s pretty much all we need to talk about when it comes to the things that happened in the land of Wano, but there is a lot of stuff that happened outside of Wano during our stay in the close off land of the samurai that is also important for our story, so let’s cover some of that as well.
The first major thing – and this is not completely new knowledge – is that there are new admirals. We met Fujitora on Dressrosa and learned that there was another, but exactly who this other person was isn’t revealed to us until the end of Wano when Ryokugyu shows up to deal with the samurai and Straw Hats and claim Wano for the world government. This goes horribly wrong as Shanks unleashes some incredibly powerful Haki to get him to back off, but even if that didn’t happen, I’m sure the crew plus their allies could take out one Admiral after what they did to two of the emperors.
But sending an admiral to Wano isn’t the only thing that the world government did. During this year’s tumultuous Reverie, during which trust was shattered, kings were murdered and revolutionaries ran rampant, one of the big things that was decided on, is the abolishment of the Seven Warlord system. We learn a little bit later on in the story what helped them make this decision and it’s pretty messed up once you really dig into it, but that also means that people like Boa Hancock, Buggy and Mihawk no longer enjoy any protection from the navy, and are once again wanted pirates in the world of One Piece.
So we enter the future island of Egghead with three new emperors – Shanks being the only remaining emperor of the previous generation – as well as a scrapped warlord system. Vivi is currently missing and with her father dead, she is the queen of Arabasta now. We have a lot still to go, but with all these pieces in the right place, we can properly descend into the final stages of the story. We still need to figure out what Shanks’ deal is, why Blackbeard can use multiple devil fruits, what exactly happened at the Reverie, who the man with the burn scar is and what there is to find on the final island of Laugh Tale. There is much still to come, and we’ll cover some of it next week as we properly set foot into the future. I hope this recap of Wano gave you a quick update on what important things happened during it, and as always, thank you for reading.
I’ve seen a decent amount of comedic anime throughout the years, but I find that they often don’t really land for me. I’ve seen the craze for Mashle and although I know quite a few people who think it’s a hilarious show, I felt insulted by its stupidity. That’s not to say I’m above stupid humor or I’m too smart to enjoy a show like that. It’s very much the opposite. One of my favorite comedy anime is Granblue Dreaming which I would argue is the dumbest show I’ve ever watched. There’s a comedy show airing this season that I really like, and I think there’s a particular decision made by the author that changed this show from what would have probably been a bad show to a good one. Again, all of this is subjective, if you like Mashle and dislike this show, then that’s perfectly fine too.
She doesn’t have the over the shoulder braid like most anime moms so you know she’ll be okay.
Sakamoto Days tells the story of Sakamoto Taro, a retired hitman who quit the business because he fell madly in love, got married, had a daughter and started a convenience store. Of course his past comes back to haunt him in the form of Shin – his old sidekick – as well as a 1 billion bounty that is still on his head. We get some cool action scenes like you would expect from a show like this, but up until now the stakes have always felt quite low. Protecting the sanctity of daily life is causing more problems than the actual dealing with hitmen. And like I said earlier in this post, there is one decision the author made that I think causes this show to work much better than it otherwise would.
Oh, nothing much, just dealt with some underground network of assassins and villains. I mean, went for a walk.
Sakamoto’s wife is well aware of Sakamoto’s past and also understands that sometimes it comes back to haunt him. She made him promise not to kill anyone, so he doesn’t, but she does get mad when problems arise. I strongly think that if his wife was unaware of his past and that was the main source of comedy, this show wouldn’t work. That sort of “hiding in plain sight” that shows like Spy x Family do just doesn’t appeal to me as comedy. That’s not to say I don’t like Spy x Family, it has some fantastically silly moments and the soundtrack carries it on its back, but it’s not nearly as funny as Sakamoto Days.
A pretty solid running gag that only works with an extremely powerful hitman and a psychic who can read minds. Pretty clever if you’d ask me.
As someone who generally doesn’t like comedy anime that much, it’s been nice to find one that works for me. Even a show like One Punch Man got old after a while. Luckily we then got Mob Psycho 100 by the same author which I think was a much better show. If you haven’t checked out Sakamoto Days yet, this is your call to do so. And let me know if there are any funny anime I should check out that will make me laugh for sure. Thanks for reading!
Volume 104 is a volume of convictions. We start off this volume with a couple of chapters where everyone lays their personal convictions bare. Momonosuke is asked by his mother and the samurai to give them another chance to fight. As a young child he allows them to do so, tears streaming down his face but his conviction is there. The samurai fighting in Onigashima show us their conviction to go down with the ship. If it means their family gets to live a happier life due to Kaido dying then they have no issue dying alongside him. Meanwhile Usopp thinks otherwise and is desperate to keep living. Respectable in its own way. We end this section of the story with Denjiro’s conviction of protecting Hiyori from Orochi. His twenty year quest of madness has finally come to an end as the fool of a lord falls for the last time, ending the Kurozumi line for good it seems.
We learn the names of the CP0 agents here in the SBS question corner, although they aren’t all that important since most of them are dead by now. I believe Joseph is the surviving member on the island. We also learn a little bit about Oda’s inspiration for Kanjuro. It’s based on a Rakugo play about a sculptor who is so talented that his sculptures come to life, so he switches hands to prevent this. Let’s go back to the main story though.
With a punch to end all punches, Luffy finally manages to defeat Kaido once and for all, with both the – now former – emperors of the sea disappearing into an underground volcano, dead for good from the looks of it. That’s kind of wild to be honest with you. As bad as some of the villains in One Piece have been, I can’t think of a single time where Luffy has actually killed a major villain. Crocodile is thriving in the crew of an emperor, Enel is chilling on the moon, Hody Jones and Doflamingo are in prison, Caesar Clown is still around and even Katakuri is still okay. The only one that Luffy might have killed was Wapol all the way back in Drum island since he kicked the corrupt king all the way into the ocean, but we all know that Wapol survived that encounter. Now two emperors are dead and someone needs to take their spots. But enough of that for now, let’s focus on the emotional conclusion of the raid.
Momonosuke crashes the celebration, terrifying all those present when a dragon suddenly shows up. He tells them not to be afraid as a new age is coming. That’s when Komurasaki – Hiyori – shows up alongside the surviving Ayakaza Nine. They introduce their new shogun, Kozuki Momonosuke, to the world. We see a large part of this through the eyes of Tama, who has had to go through so much pain and hardship just to survive and make it to this day. She lost everything she had, lived in poverty and persisted. She even played a key role in the fight against Kaido and she’s only a child. I cannot tell you how many times I had to take a break from this chapter to wipe the tears from my eyes. Wano has been saved.
Oh and speaking of Caesar earlier, he reappears here in the cover story of the Germa siblings saving the ones that have been caught by the Big Mom pirates. It’s a small world.
In the wake of Wano being saved, the entire country celebrates for days on end. Everyone gets the time to rest up and waits patiently for Luffy and Zoro to recover, which they eventually do. Yamato doesn’t even eat until both of them wake up, and neither does he bathe. So the first order of business when the captain and right hand man of the Straw Hat Crew wake up is to get some food and booze in them before relaxing in the bath. Unfortunately Wano does not have mixed baths so they all have to go into the bath that belongs to their gender. This means Yamato goes in the men’s bath and Kiku goes in the woman’s bath. If that bothers you after 104 volumes I don’t know what else I can tell you but “get out”. You’re not wanted here, and Oda is making that clear in his writing as well. I love how this manga can be read as a fun pirate story for teenage boys yet have some incredibly deep social commentary at the same time. But no time to worry about gender and hatred, because big things are happening. Morgans got his hands on the information about Wano’s changes and has taken the liberty to print a picture of Luffy in his Nika form. The whole world now knows about this and all three of the captains present at the raid have their bounties raised to 3 billion. But only one of them has made it to be on the list of the four emperors. The new generation of emperors are now Shanks, Blackbeard, Luffy and…. Buggy? Something very significant must have happened while we weren’t paying attention to the world. Our next big villain even says so, as Ryogyoku, one of the navy admirals, lands on Wano to come and take Luffy’s head.
With the remnants of Kozuki fighting off Ryogyoku we see what is going on in the world. Sabo has allegedly killed King Cobra of Arabasta and Vivi – who would now be queen – is missing. Akainu seems to be mostly in the dark of what is going on and why his job has become so complicated. In the holy land a brawl broke out and the revolutionaries managed to retrieve the cyborg that is Bartholomew Kuma. If I ever meet the man that made him into what he is I have some choice words. We get our first mention of the Holy Knights, a force of formidable warriors that work directly for the Celestial Dragons. Zooming back to Wano, we see Shanks reminisce to things that happened in the past. He remembers how he stole the rubber fruit from Who’s who and “gave” it to Luffy, who has now become an emperor, a being who is on equal footing with Shanks. Then again, Shanks just has to look at Ryogyoku to get him to shut up and leave Wano alone, so it’s hard to say how close Luffy and Shanks really are. Luffy realizes who releases the monstrous Haki but he is unaware that his old friend is now going after the One Piece in earnest. We also learn that Barto has been rampaging through Shanks’ domain in Luffy’s name, which the crew is not quite happy about. Volume 104 is where – at least in my opinion – the final saga starts and it is a wild ride that just keeps getting more and more crazy. Next week we will cover the remaining bits of Wano, as well as some of the stuff that happens throughout the world before we dive into the next arc. I hope to see you there and as always, thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 